


Where You Go, I Go

by wtinp



Series: the babysitters club. [2]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Fluff and Angst, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Little!Tony, Non-Sexual Age Play, Tony Stark Feels, caretaker!Natasha, caretaker!Phil
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-11
Updated: 2016-02-11
Packaged: 2018-05-19 19:18:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5978218
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wtinp/pseuds/wtinp
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony has a bad week. Fury makes it worse.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Where You Go, I Go

**Author's Note:**

> oh, heyyyyyy. two fics in one week; I'm on a roll! (please don't expect this to be a regular thing, haha). 
> 
> not beta'd and I googled the Russian term of endearment so hope it works. enjoy!

Tony’s week was not going great. Steve had left in the middle of the night on Sunday, after Sam called and told him Bucky was sitting on his porch (although Sam said he looked more sad duck than assassin). Monday came with an early morning wake up from Pepper about some malfunctions at one of their manufacturing plants, which meant a long flight and even longer hours to fix everything. With no rest for the wicked, Tony had to take a redeye back to Manhattan in order to calm all the panicked Board members (which always took more out of him than he wanted). And, while the malfunctions really weren’t that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things, they still caused the stock prices to dip. Pepper practically begged him to push up the release date for the newest operating system, in order to sooth all the wrinkled feathers, which led to an all nighter in his lab. 

By Saturday morning, Tony was working on maybe 15 hours of sleep since Steve left and a mixture of coffee and smoothies. He was more than ready for a break, which is, of course, exactly when the Avengers alarm goes off. 

Tony sighs, his body protesting as he pushes himself out of his chair. He knows he should bow out of this now (and also knows that Steve will be _highly_ upset with him for going out on so little sleep). But the team needs him, with Steve gone and Thor off planet and Bruce...well, usually they keep him as a last resort. So he ignores the black dots at the edge of his eyes, and makes his way to the quinjet. JARVIS had already silenced the alarm and got Phil on video conference, the Agent’s voice ringing out through the hanger. 

“We’ve got an alarm going off at one SHIELD’s offsite facility, about a half hour from here.” 

“Agent! Oh, how I’ve missed your dulcet tones.” Tony can almost hear Phil rolling his eyes, as he joins Nat and Clint. He gives them both what he hopes is a decent smile, though he can tell by the worried look Nat shoots him it wasn’t successful. 

“The guards on duty aren’t responding, but we have some agents who should be there in about ten minutes.” Phil continues, choosing to ignore Tony for the moment. 

“Why are you calling in the big guns? Shouldn’t your little minions be able to handle this?” Tony _really_ doesn’t want to go if it’s not needed; he’d much rather be sleeping. 

“Normally, they would. However, this is one of the facilities where we are doing some of our more...interesting testing. That, coupled with unresponsive guards, means we’d rather not take any chances.” 

And yea, while he might not like it, that does make sense. Tony sighs, resigning himself to being awake for at least another eight hours. “Alright Doublemint Twins, let’s get this show on the road. If we’re lucky, we’ll be back before Bruce finishes lunch.” 

\--------

They were not lucky. Tony would say he jinxed them, if he believed in things like that. They had made it to the facility in good time, with no sign of trouble in sight. The SHIELD agents are just milling about, having already determined the building was empty. Nat and Clint were quick to scout the building themselves, returning less than ten minutes later with an all clear. And really, Tony should have just left well enough alone at that point. But he was already _there_ , so why not take a quick look around at their labs, maybe take a look at their systems just to make sure it wasn’t a glitch in the code that set everything off. 

So inside he went, waving Clint off as he went to follow (and boy was he glad of that, after the fact). He made quick work of getting into the system, patching JARVIS in to run a one of his generic debugging programs. While that was working, he made his way to the labs, checking to see if anything was out of place. What he didn’t know was that SHIELD had a trigger in the code that set off a self-destruct sequence as soon as it was tripped (which Tony did as soon as he let JARVIS in). JARVIS barely had time to warn him before the whole building blew up.

And yes fine, _maybe_ it was his fault for mucking about in things he didn’t know about, when he was running on a very tiny amount of sleep. But it’s not like SHIELD didn’t have a thousand backups of everything. And Tony was more than willing to cover the cost of the damage, if it meant Fury would stop yelling at him.

Which he’d been doing. For the past hour. 

“If SHIELD wanted you in our goddamn systems, you would be there!” Fury went on. “How many times do I have to fucking tell you, Stark? Leave our shit alone!” 

“It’s not like anyone died!” Tony responded, more than done with getting yelled at. He just wanted to go home, take a nice bath and put on some comfy pajamas before getting into bed. Maybe he could even talk Nat into snuggling with him…

“And you’re goddamn lucky about that or else you’d be in even more trouble. With the way you act, you’re lucky I’m still allowing you to stay on this team.” 

“ _Allowing me?_ ” Now that caught Tony’s attention. Fury thought he could just kick him off the team? With all the work (not to mention money) he put into the Avengers? God, he wished Steve were here. Or Nat, with her murder eyes. 

“Yes, allow you. I put you on this team and I can damn well take you off of it. Fuck, it’s not like you have anything to offer beside funding.” 

“Are you kidding me?” Tony was in disbelief. Did Fury (and by extension SHIELD) really think that little of him? Even taking out the thing he did as Ironman, did they think the tech he provided for the team just appeared out of thin air? “You really think you can replace me?” 

“Face it, Stark. You’re not a hero; you don’t belong on this team.” Fury goes on, not realizing or ignoring how upset Tony is getting. “And now that we’ve located the Winter Soldier, there won’t be a problem with filling your spot.” 

And that…that was like a goddamn punch to his heart. He _knew_ he would never measure up to what Bucky was to Steve, not matter how many times Steve tried to tell him different. Tell him that he would always be Steve’s sweet boy and no matter what happened, Steve would always be there for him. 

But Steve wasn’t there for him. And he wanted him. Because Tony was tired. He was tired, he was hungry and he wanted the mean man to stop yelling at him. Tony needed his daddy. 

So he did what he always did when he wanted his daddy; Tony started crying. 

“What the fuck.” The mean guys says, which only makes Tony cry harder. “Hill, get one Coulson in here, **now.** ” 

And while it’s not as good as his Daddy, Tony calms slightly at knowing his Uncle Phil is on his way. 

“What’s going on?” Uncle Phil makes his way swiftly to where Tony is sitting, Auntie Nat and Clint close behind him. Tony whines and leans into the hand Phil places on his shoulder. 

“What’s going on?” The man is almost yelling now, and Tony wants to cover his ears. “What’s going on is this idiot blew up one of our facilities _accidentally_ and then starts crying like a baby!” 

Phil squeezes his shoulder gently, while Tony tries to quiet his sobs. He doesn’t mean to be such a baby. 

“Natasha, please take Clint and Tony to back to the tower. I’ll be there after I’ve had a word with Fury.” 

“Come, myshka. Time to go home.” Auntie Nat guides Tony to his feet and he burrows into her side, while Clint moves to his right. He barely pays attention as they make their way through the corridors to the quinjet, whining when his Auntie buckles him in his seat. 

“It’s okay now, myshka.” Auntie says, as she runs a hand through his hair. “Once we get home, I’ll get you all snuggled up in some pajamas, make you a bottle and then we can cuddle on the couch. How does that sound, hm?” 

That sounds wonderful to Tony, his sobs quieting now that he’s in a calmer environment. He lets his head slide down to meet Auntie’s shoulder, his eyes closing as his thumb makes it’s way to his mouth. 

\--------

Tony doesn’t even notice he fell asleep until his Auntie is shaking him awake. 

“We’re home. Bruce has your things waiting for you, and Clint has gone to set up a movie for us.” She guides him to his feet again while he tries to rub the sleep out of his eyes. He really just wants to go straight to bed, but he also knows he needs to eat. He lists into her side, letting her carry most of his weight as they make their way up to his room.

“Here we go, up on the bed for me, so we can get you changed.” Auntie helps him up on to the bed, carefully maneuvering him onto the changing pad. She moves efficiently, having him diapered and in his onesie faster than Tony can blink. She pops a pacifier in his mouth, attaching it to the top of his pjs, before pulling him back to his feet. “Our Little Bird has set up _Mulan_ for us, and Bruce is waiting with your bottle. And you, myshka, are more than ready for a nap,” she says bopping his nose lightly and making Tony giggle. 

The movie has already started when they get there, though Tony doesn’t really mind. He knows his big brother doesn’t have a lot of patience, and he really just uses movies as an excuse to cuddle anyway. Natasha accepts the bottle from Bruce as they pass, settling down into the loveseat before pulling him down into her lap. She props up some pillows behind him, leaning him backward slowly before swapping out the pacifier for the bottle. Tony’s hunger returns with a vengeance, forcing Auntie to slow him down before he makes himself sick. 

“You can’t let yourself get this hungry, myshka.” She says, patting his tummy. “You know I don’t like it when you get sick.” 

Tony looks up at her balefully, hoping to convey his regret over worrying her. He hates making his aunties and uncles upset, almost as much as his Daddy.

“It’s okay, just remember to tell us next time, hm?” She responds, noticing his anxiety. “Or I can work something out with JARVIS, for when your Daddy is away.” 

Tony whines at that, wishing once again that his Daddy was here. He loves his Auntie Nat, and she’s his favorite after Daddy and Phil. But...it’s different, with his Daddy. He knows exactly how to make Tony laugh, and which toy he likes to cuddle with best, and how hot to make his bath. Tony’s vision goes blurry as his eyes fill with tears and he pushes the bottle away again. 

“Shhh,” Auntie moves him and pushes his face into her neck, before rubbing soothing circles into his back. “It’s okay, I didn’t mean to upset you. Your daddy will be home soon, I promise.” 

Tony relaxes into her hold, letting her soft words lull him to sleep. 

\--------

“How’s he doing?” A hand is on his head, brushing through his hair, waking him slightly. 

“Overtired and overworked. I had Bruce call Steve, and he’s already on his way back. Should be here within the next hour.” 

“Good.” The hand disappears, and he feels a weight settle next to him before it starts again. “I’d love to be a fly on the wall once Steve finds out what Fury said to Tony.” 

He feels his Auntie move below him, making him whine and hold tighter. 

“Tony?” Oh, that’s Uncle Phil. “Sweetheart, can you look at me?” No, Tony really doesn’t want to, but he did ask nicely and Daddy says it’s rude to ignore someone and Tony doesn’t want to be rude, especially to Uncle Phil. He twists his head, blinking rapidly as he tries to focus on his Uncle. 

“There you are,” Phil smiles at him brightly. “I know you aren’t big yet, and I know that’s who really needs to hear this but Tony,” Phil pauses, making sure Tony is paying attention. “What Fury said is wrong. You are important to us, and we need you. Okay?” 

Tony feels his mouth moving into a pout, not really understanding what his Uncle is saying. Phil smiles softly again, reaching over to move him to his own lap. He starts rubbing his back like Auntie was doing, and he can feel his eyes drooping shut again. “You’re an Avenger until you say so, not anyone else.” Tony can feel a few tears slipping out of his eyes at that, and he clings to Phil. His Auntie moves closer to him, wrapping an arm around his waist.

“Myshka, you are a hero. _My_ hero.” With that she places a kiss on his forehead, and pulls a blanket over the three of them. “And where you go, I go,” she says, squeezing him. 

And that….that’s something that Tony will hold with him for the rest of his life.

**Author's Note:**

> so I actually like Fury and think that he & Tony could have a pretty good relationship, buuuuut I also need a bad guy for this and he fit. so. also you'll never be able to convince me that Nat & Tony don't have the most epic of all friendships, second to only his & Rhodey (pepper is her own category). 
> 
> come talk to me on [tumblr](http://wheretimeisneverplanned.tumblr.com/). feel free to send prompts, headcanons or just love for Tony :)
> 
> comments and kudos are appreciated!


End file.
